Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well developed, not deficient in any way. ~James 1:2-4 (MSG)
When life is filled with tests and trials, we sometimes feel like throwing in the towel. We can easily be tempted to think God doesn’t know where we are and what we are going through or worse yet, that He doesn’t care. But God allows challenges and tests in our life so He can prepare us for His blessings. When we are faithful and obedient to His word and handle adversity the way He would expect us to respond, we gain the confidence to receive His blessings. This is exactly what happened in Jeremiah 32. God told Jeremiah to purchase a field when Jeremiah was being held as a prisoner and just before the entire nation of Israel went into captivity to the Babylonians. God said of the sealed deed to the land in Jeremiah 32:15 “In the future these papers will be valuable. Someday people will again own property here in this country and will be buying and selling houses and vineyards and fields.” (TLB) Jeremiah chose to be obedient to God in what appeared to be a hopeless situation and showed his faith in the promise of God by being obedient to the point of what many of us would call a bad investment. But Jeremiah wasn’t investing in the land. He was investing in the promise. He was counting on God to be true to His word. How far will you let your faith go to invest in the promises of God? When was the last time you acted on His word and lived like what He said was true before the promise was ever manifested in your life? That is exactly what we are doing with the promise of eternal life. Aren’t we believing we are going to spend eternity with our Father in Heaven in the place He has promised us that He has prepared? Then why do we have such a hard time believing that when we give, it will be given to us, pressed down shaken together and good measure will we received when we give. Or why is it difficult to trust God with those we love, knowing He hears every prayer and is working all things together for their good? Why do we put the burden of providing on ourselves when God has promised we are more important than the sparrow that He cares for daily, and He knows our needs even before we pray? Why do we falter when we are called to endure? Because we have to love the Lord with all our heart and with all our mind and with all our soul and we have to believe the Lord with all our heart and all our mind and all our soul to be able to invest in the promises He has made to us by faith.
We need to learn to “put our money where our mouth is” so to speak. It is time for us to daily put into practice being obedient to God’s word as we patiently wait for His promises to be manifested instead of passively waiting on God. There is a difference. God tells us in James 2:17 “So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” (ESV) Is your faith alive? Start asking yourself in adverse situations if you are responding the way God would want you to. If you want to enjoy your Christian life and be used by God to help others, you must maintain a godly attitude during the time of testing and you must also step out and make a difference where you are and with what you have been given. Cooperate with God with your faith and obedience and you will pass life's tests with flying colors!
Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you. ~1 Peter 5:7 (NIV)
What comes out when life puts the squeeze on you? Faith or Fear?
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